Obama’s TV Picks: Anything Edgy, With Hints of Reality

The Netflix series “House of Cards” is set in a dysfunctional Washington.Credit
Melinda Sue Gordon for Netflix

WASHINGTON — War, terrorism, economic struggle, mass shootings — such is life in the Oval Office for President Obama.

Yet in his few quiet moments, this president seeks not to escape to the delicious back-stabbing of the “Real Housewives” or the frivolity of the singing teenagers on “Glee.” By his own accounts, Mr. Obama is drawn in his spare time to shows like HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and “Boardwalk Empire,” the kind of heavy, darkly rendered television that echoes the sadness and strife that make up so much of his workday.

These days, when Mr. Obama retreats to the White House residence after a long day on the other end of the colonnade, he is working his way through the DVD box set of AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” the award-winning TV drama about a drug-dealing high school teacher. The show just ended after five seasons, but the president is way behind and frequently reminds those around him not to give anything away.

Friends say Mr. Obama is also keenly awaiting the new season of the Netflix show “House of Cards,” which starkly depicts a dysfunctional Washington — a theme that must seem all too familiar. At a meeting of technology executives last week, Mr. Obama jokingly lamented his own inability to maneuver the halls of Congress in the way of Kevin Spacey’s character, Frank Underwood.

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“Homeland,” Showtime’s C.I.A. thrillerCredit
Kent Smith/Showtime

“I wish things were that ruthlessly efficient,” Mr. Obama was overheard saying to Reed Hastings, the Netflix C.E.O., who invited the president to do a cameo on the show. Mr. Obama joked of the sleazy, congressman-murderer Mr. Underwood, “This guy’s getting a lot of stuff done.”

Since leaving office, Bill Clinton has said he liked “24,” Fox’s terrorism cliffhanger, and — you guessed it — ABC’s “Scandal,” a political thriller set in Washington. Ronald Reagan, a former actor, once offered to appear on his favorite show, the sitcom “Family Ties.” (His offer was rejected.) Franklin Roosevelt was said to like Mickey Mouse cartoons in an era long before cable made TV edgy. George W. Bush was said to not be a particular fan of television, but made exceptions for A&E’s “Biography” and a variety of sports programs.

But for Mr. Obama, “Breaking Bad” and “House of Cards” are hardly the exceptions to what has become a clear pattern. Mr. Obama is also a devotee of Showtime’s “Homeland,” which offers an eerily familiar mirror to the president’s own foreign policy adventures: terrorism, Iranian nuclear negotiations, drone strikes, and an intelligence agency struggling for legitimacy with Congress and the American people.

And the list of heavies continues. Mr. Obama has told people he is a big fan of “Game of Thrones,” a brutal imagining of the wars in medieval Europe. He has raved about “Boardwalk Empire” and ITV’s “Downton Abbey,” two period dramas that document the angst and difficulties that people faced during those times. And he has worked his way through the DVDs of AMC’s smoldering “Mad Men” series, telling friends that the character of Peggy Olson has given him insight into what it must have been like for his strong-willed grandmother in a world dominated by men.

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HBO’s violent “Game of ThronesCredit
Helen Sloan/HBO

Then there is HBO’s “The Wire,” which Mr. Obama has repeatedly called one of the “greatest shows of all time.” The drama depicted the poverty-stricken projects in Baltimore and documented the drug war between worn-out cops and the city’s African-American residents. (The president’s favorite character: Omar Little, the stickup man who robs the drug dealers.)

David Simon, the show’s creator, said in an interview that he wonders whether Mr. Obama was drawn to the show because it dealt so directly with the issues of social and economic strife.

“ ‘The Wire’ was one of the few shows that was about the other America,” Mr. Simon said. “It was set in the inner city. The characters were of a class that has been left behind economically and politically.”

That sounds, Mr. Simon noted, a lot like the America that Mr. Obama is keen to transcend. In a speech earlier this month, Mr. Obama pledged the remainder of his presidency to the fight against the kinds of persistent poverty that were depicted in “The Wire.”

“The idea that a child may never be able to escape that poverty because she lacks a decent education or health care, or a community that views her future as their own,” Mr. Obama said, “that should offend all of us and it should compel us to action. We are a better country than this.”

Mr. Simon says he made his show “from some of the same perspectives” that the president expressed in that speech. But he conceded that “it’s all speculation, and it’s not entirely fair” to guess what the president is thinking.

It is true that Mr. Obama has his own TV distractions that do not involve serious subjects. He is a rabid sports fan, and friends and colleagues say he enjoys ESPN’s “SportsCenter.” He also once told TV Guide that he and his family watch ABC’s “Modern Family” and NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” — two comedy shows that could never be accused of being deep, dark or edgy.

But Mr. Obama once admitted to People magazine that he is “a little darker” in his TV habits than the rest of his family.

It may be “Homeland” that offers the most interesting insight into Mr. Obama’s downtime preferences. Like Fox’s “24” before it, “Homeland” reveals the hidden dangers in a complicated world. But “Homeland” is more subtle, presenting choices that are rarely easy and never cost-free.

Perhaps that is what television is for Mr. Obama: a poetic reflection. Or maybe despite his day job, the president simply enjoys the cliffhanger tension of the best dramas.

After meeting the president at the White House last year, Claire Danes, who plays the C.I.A. officer Carrie Mathison in “Homeland,” expressed shock at having a “first fan.”

“I think we were all stunned — and a little terrified by that idea,” she said. “The president knows what we do?”

Correction: January 2, 2014

An article on Monday about TV shows that President Obama watches misidentified the network that produced the television show “Downton Abbey.” It is ITV, not the BBC.

A version of this article appears in print on December 30, 2013, on Page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: Obama’s TV Picks: Anything Edgy, With Hints of Reality. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe